Private hospitals used Asthma drug for headache patient

APRIL 07 - CHITWAN, 

The cases of extreme negligence on the part of the hospitals, especially privately run hospitals, have been on the rise in the district. In a recent case, the hospital pharmacy at Narayani Community Hospital (NCH) dispensed asthma medication to a patient suffering from headache, which apparently was not even prescribed by the doctor.

Tej Narayan Pandey of Gaindakot-2, Nawalparasi had taken his wife, Laxmi, 37, to the Narayani Community Hospital after she complained of headache on Monday and returned after a routine check-up. And though Dr Mahendra Agrahari prescribed three medicines, Pandey was coerced into buying an extra medication other than that prescribed by the doctor, at the hospital pharmacy. 

Though he did not take notice of it at the time, Laxmi’s health worsened after taking the medication and had problems breathing and suffered from stomach ache on the first day. 

She had to be rushed back to the hospital after she fell unconscious and collapsed the next day. It was only when she was brought to the hospital he came to know that the pharmacy staff had given him medicines for asthma.

Dr Agrahari admitted that the pharmacy had given out wrong medicine. “This is a case of extreme negligence on the part of the pharmacy, by deliberately giving medicine other than prescribed by the doctor,” Pandey said. 

He alleged that instead of tending to the patient immediately, the hospital administration tried to hide the matter by asking him to “sit and discuss” it when he brought Laxmi back to the hospital. Laxmi’s relatives also closed the pharmacy for two hours in protest. After an agreement was reached, Laxmi is being treated at a cabin in the hospital. 

Following the incident, the hospital remained tense throughout the day and police had to be mobilised after some of the protesters tried to vandalise hospital property.

However, this is not the first time the hospital was embroiled in such incident. Barely a month ago, Karna Bahadur Gurung of Krishnapur in Bharatpur-7, who had gone to seek treatment for a mass of tissue in his nose had to pay with his life due to doctors’ negligence .